$10 Wine

A friend of mine once told me that it’s easy to find a good bottle of wine for $50, but if you can find a good bottle for $10, then you’ve really found something. Sage words, those.

On round two of my drinking career, I’m venturing out. So instead of simply having my normal standby – Sierra Nevada Pale Ale – I’ll either try a different brand, or different type. Most recently, there’s been more IPA than I’d prefer, as it’s somewhat ubiquitous. But beer makes me bloat, and I’m already bloated enough, so I’m trying to spend more time with wine.

Buying the motorcycle, and getting a free case of Chardonnay thrown in helped break my avoidance of whites, but I still prefer reds. In the old days, I stuck with what I knew: Napa Valley Cabs and Merlot’s and Central Coast Pinot’s. But all of those breached the $10 threshold. Now I’m trying random reds, with varying effect.

If I had to pick one that I could always drink, it would be Menage a Trois, in all variances. I think it’s some sort of Pinot Blend, but to be honest, I can’t really tell and never cared to look. Tastes great at the first pull.

Not being a great note taker, I’ve had a couple of decent bottles in between, but all of those benefitted from some oxidation – either in the glass, or after a day in the bottle. Of course, I’ve since bought a vacuum cork, so not expecting much in-bottle oxidation, now.

But it’s not always great. I just dumped 1/2 bottle of Red Velvet Devil (or something like that…it had a screw off cap. It started out real thin and oxidation helped the first glass a bit…but things just sort of went south after that. That’s the nice thing about $10 bottle – there’s not much invested, so there’s not much reason to keep drinking it. I’m going t have to keep taking better notes, so I can remember the ones I like, while avoiding the ones I don’t.